License plate or tag frames that are configured to illuminate currently exist and serve the purpose of enhancing the visibility, and therefore safety and effectiveness, of many emergency and public service vehicles. While emergency warning lighting is employed on various portions of emergency vehicles, illuminating license plate holders seek to mount warning lights to vehicles without putting additional holes or other permanent modifications to the exterior of the vehicles. Some currently existing illuminating license plate holder designs are either a plastic or metal frame that sits over the license plate. Other existing design is a bracket, having one or more lights, which is bolted to the license plate to hold one or more lights proximate to the license plate while extending around and covering the perimeter of the license plate.
One drawback of most existing illuminating license plate holder designs is that they cover one or more portions of a license plate contained therein, obscuring county, state, tax or renewal information. However, it is illegal to cover or obscure this information. Another problem with current designs is they their installation can interfere with now mandated reverse cameras on modern emergency vehicles such as police cars. Typically, these vehicles have a reverse camera mounted in or proximate to the license plate area and this area is often not sized to accommodate both a camera and an illuminating license plate holder resulting in partial obstruction of the camera's field of view and/or modifications to the exterior of the vehicle.
Therefore a need exists for novel license plate holders or frames which are suitable for use on emergency vehicles and which are configured to illuminate. There is also a need for novel illuminating license plate holders or frames which do not require permanent modifications to the exterior of the vehicles during installation. A further need exists, for novel illuminating license plate holders or frames which do not cover important information contained on a license plate such as county, state, tax or renewal information. Finally, a need exists for novel illuminating license plate holders or frames which are able to be mounted on vehicles having a reverse camera mounted in or proximate to the license plate area.